Pentagon Seeks $220 Million for Israel’s Iron Dome System

By Tony Capaccio -
Apr 16, 2013

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense
Agency for the first time in its regular annual budget contains
funds to buy additional Iron Dome missile defense systems for
Israel, according to documents and an agency spokesman.

The budget requests $220 million for missile batteries in
fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1, and an additional $175.9
million in fiscal 2015, according to budget documents the
Missile Defense Agency posted online last week.

The money, if approved during the annual defense budget
process, would be on top of $486 million the White House and
Congress have requested or added for the system in recent years
after formal budgets were submitted. This includes $211 million
added in the defense appropriations bill for this year, which
President Barack Obama signed into law last month.

The $220 million request for fiscal 2014 “is new money,
and it is the first time funding specifically for Iron Dome
procurement has been requested in our budget submission,”
Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner said in an e-
mail.

House and Senate defense committees last year signaled they
wanted to approve spending as much as $680 million on Iron Dome
through 2015.

The fiscal 2014 request “is a smaller piece of the larger
amount and supports the various production lines and schedules
to meet the desired goals,” Lehner said.

Intercepting Rockets

The U.S. and Israel in October conducted their biggest
joint air and missile defense exercise amid rising tensions with
Iran. The “Austere Challenge 12” exercise involved as many as
3,500 U.S. personnel in the region along with 1,000 members of
the Israel Defense Forces.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today at a U.S. House
hearing that he plans within “a few days” to visit Israel.

Israeli and U.S. officials last year said the Iron Dome
missile defense system intercepted about 400 rockets fired at
Israel, or about 85 percent of those targeted by its radar and
battle-management system as heading toward populated areas,
during eight days of bloodshed between Israel and Hamas, which
controls the Gaza strip.

Iron Dome, made in Israel by Haifa-based Rafael Advanced
Defense Systems Ltd., is designed to intercept and destroy
rockets capable of flying as far as 70 kilometers (44 miles).
Israel has fielded its first five batteries of launchers and
interceptors costing as much as $90,000 apiece, according to the
nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Praising U.S.

Then-Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak last year praised
the U.S. for the prior investments that allowed Israel’s
military to more quickly deploy the initial batteries in
southern Israel.

In addition to the new Iron Dome funding, the Missile
Defense Agency requested $95.7 million to bankroll three other
systems under the general category of Israeli Cooperative
Programs, about $4 million less than this year’s request.

The missile defense agency projects it will request $510
million for these three systems through 2018

The category includes money for improvements to the
existing Arrow program and new Arrow 3, intended to intercept
long- and medium-range ballistic missiles such as those
possessed by Iran, and a shorter range new system called David’s
Sling, designed to intercept rockets fired by Hamas and
Hezbollah.

Long-Range Detection

The fiscal 2014 request includes money for Arrow 3 to
continue development testing, conduct a second intercept flight
and prepare the weapon to start initial production, according to
agency documents. Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA) and Tel Aviv-based
Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. are developing the Arrow 3
interceptor.

Enhancements to the existing Arrow program funded in the
fiscal 2014 request include integrating a “long-range detection
suite” of sensors designed to detect the flight of unmanned
aerial drones into Israeli territory, according to the budget
documents.

The Arrow “Weapon Systems Improvement” also funds the
integration of data links that allow Israeli missile defense
units to integrate with U.S. weapons in the region.